miniftration, I know not; but this I know with certainty, that, under the prefent administration, or if any thing like it should continue, it is of very little moment whether we are a conquered nation or not †

Having travelled thus far in the high road of matter of fact, I may now be permitted to wander a little into the field of imagination. Let us banish from our minds the perfuafion that thefe events have really happened in the reign of the beft of princes. Let us confider them as

The King's acceptance of the Spanish Ambaffador's declaration, is drawn up in barbarous French, and figned by the Earl of Rochford. This diplomatic Lord has spent his life in the study and practice of Etiquettes, and is fuppofed to be a profound mafter of the ceremonies. I will not infult him by any reference to grammar or common fenfe; if he were even acquainted with the common forms of his office, I fhould think him as well qualified for it, as any man in his Majesty's service.--- The reader is requested to obferve Lord Rochford's method of authenticating a public inftrument, "En foi de quoi, moi fouffigné, un des "principaux Secretaires d'Etat S. M. B. ai figné la prefente "de ma fignature ordinaire, et icelle fait appofer le cachet "de nos Armes." In three lines there are no less than But the man does not even know the

feven falfe concords.

ftile of his office;---If he had known it, he would have faid "nous, fouffigné Secretaire d'Etat de S. M. B. avons "figné, &c.

nothing more than the materials of a fable, in which we may conceive the Sovereign of fome other country to be concerned. I mean to violate all the laws of probability, when I fuppofe that this imaginary King, after having voluntarily disgraced himself in the eyes of his fubjects, might return to a fenfe of his difhonour;--that he might perceive the fnare laid for him by his minifters, and feel a fpark of shame kindling in his breaft.-The part he must then be obliged to act, would overwhelm him with confufion. To his parliament he must say, I called you together to receive your advice, and have never afked your opinion.-To the merchant,-I have distressed your commerce; I have dragged your feamen out of your ships, I have loaded you with a grievous weight of insurances.-To the landholder,-I told you war was too probable, when I was determined to fubmit to any terms of accommodation; I extorted new taxes from you before it was poffible they could be wanted, and am now unable to account for the application of them. --To the public creditor,-I have delivered up your fortunes a prey to foreigners and to the vileft of your fellow fubjects. Perhaps this repenting Prince might conclude with one general acknowledgement to them all,-I have involved every rank of my fubjects in anxiety and difirefs, and have nothing to offer you in return, but the certainty

tainty of national dishonour, an armed truce, and peace without fecurity.

If these accounts were fettled, there would ftill remain an apology to be made to his navy and to his army. To the first he would fay, you were once the terror of the world. But go back to your barbours. A man dishonoured as I am. has no ufe for your fervice. It is not probable that he would appear again before his foldiers, even in the pacific ceremony of a review. But wherever he appeared, the humiliating confeffion would be extorted from him. I have received a blow, and had not spirit to refent it. I demanded fatisfaction, and have accepted a declaration, in which the right to firike me again is afferted and confirmed. His countenance at leaft would fpeak this language, and even his guards would blufh for him.

But to return to our argument -The miniftry, it feems, are labouring to draw a line of diftinction between the honour of the crown and the rights of the people. This new idea has yet been only started in difcourfe, for in effect both objects have been equally facrificed. I neither understand the diftinction, nor what ufe the miniftry propofe to make of it. The King's

A Miftake. He appears before them every day, with the mark of a blow upon his face.--- prob pudor!

King's honour is that of his people. Their real honour and real intereft are the fame.— I am not contending for a vain punctilio. A clear, unblemished character comprehends not only the integrity that will not offer, but the fpirit that will not fubmit to an injury; and whether it belongs to an individual or to a community, it is the foundation of peace, of independance, and of fafety. Private credit. is wealth;-public honour is fecurity.-The feather that adorns the royal bird, fupports his flight. Strip him of his plumage and you fix him to the earth.

LETTER

JUNIUS.

XXXVII.

TO THE PRINTER OF THE PUBLIC ADVER

TISER.

I

SIR,

6. February, 1771.

Hope your correfpondent Junius is better employed than in answering or reading the criticisms of a news-paper. This is a task, from which, if he were inclined to fubmit to it, his friends ought to relieve him. Upon this principle, I fhall undertake to answer Anti-Junius; more, I believe, to his conviction than to his fatisfaction. Not daring to

attack

attack the main body of Junius's laft letter, he triumphs in having, as he thinks, furprised an out-poft, and cut off a detached argument, a mere ftraggling propofition. But even in this petty warfare, he shall find himself defeated.

JUNIUS does not speak of the Spanish nation as the natural enemies of England. He applies that defcription with the ftricteft truth and juftice, to the Spanish Court. From the moment when a Prince of the Houfe of Bourbon afcended that throne, their whole fyftem of government was inverted and became hoftile to this country. Unity of poffeffion introduced a unity of politics, and Lewis the fourteenth had reafon when he faid to his grandfon. "The Pyrenees are removed." The Hiftory of the prefent century is one continued confirmation of the prophecy.

THE Affertion "That violence and oppreffion at home can only be supported by treachery " and fubmiffion abroad," is applied to a free people, whofe rights are invaded, not to the government of a country, where defpotic, or abfolute power is confeffedly vested in the prince; and with this application, the affertion is true. An abfolute monarch having no points to carry at home, will naturally maintain the honour of his crown in all his tranf

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